Genre Theories that our Promotional Package conform to

The idea that genres are constantly changing depending on what is happening in society and culture at the time is the basis of Genre theory. 

Carolyn Miller (1984) said, “the number of genres in any society depends on the complexity and diversity of society”.

Horror genre, for an example, has diversified in recent years to incorporate elements that it did not originally include. The supernatural sub-genre is an example of how horror diversified in the 1960’s during secularisation when people were getting annoyed with the clasp of social control, opening society up to new ideas and concepts such as the supernatural. Our A2 teaser trailer, which is about a demonic Priest punishing a select group of individuals for their deadly sins, is an example of the supernatural horror genre, a genre developing in newer films.

According to Jane Feuer (1992), “a genre is ultimately an abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world”.

This is the case for the supernatural horror genre. Supernatural, horror films first initialised in the late 60’s starting with Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby in 1968. This film intrigued audiences due to the demonic and supernatural aspects, welcoming the audience to question the narrative, featuring the general themes of reality, perception and supernatural presence. These ideas were then developed further with films such as, arguably the greatest entry in the Occult cycle, The Exorcist, 1973, directed by William Friedkin, followed in 1976 with Richard Donnor’s The Omen, both of which resurrect the idea of demonic possession and powers outside of the real world. Throughout the film, The Exorcist, the audience are shown strange incidences that ignite a suspicion into Regan’s’ behaviour, making strange notices, using bad language and exhibiting abnormal strength. This, in turn, leads to her mother consulting a Priest who explains that Regan has been possessed by a demon called Pazuzu and needs to be exorcised. Elements of this type of narrative and conventions can be seen in our own trailer. We replicate these ideas in our trailer as we provide a number of supernatural instances, such as our demon Priests eyes going black in a close up shot, a shadow swallowing up one of the sinners and the Priest appearing and then disappearing behind one of the sinners in a mid shot. Element of religion are also included, the main character being a Priest, however, we have twisted and developed t he ideas of the Priest being the one warding the demon off, making it so that he is the Demon. The supernatural aspects of our film trailer defiantly support Feuer’s theory, being that the strange things that occur that link are defiantly abstract conception of a narrative rather than something that exists.

Steve Neal declared, “Genres are instances of repetition and difference... difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre”(1980), linked also to Todorov (1990), “a new genre is always the transformation of one or several old genres”.

With our trailer, we have shown this to be true, using Se7en, directed by David Fincher, 1995, as a huge inspiration for our films narrative. We repeated the same conventions related to the horror genre such as gore and tension filled scenes of terror, and a similar narrative taking the seven sins aspect of the film along with the aspect of a serial killer. We however developed our narrative, making it different by adding the supernatural aspect to the film, making our Priest a demon. Our film is also different to Se7en being that the film is in the point of view of the demon Priest- a developed twist on horror and supernatural conventions. Taking aspects of the supernatural genre with demon possession and the horror genre of a serial killer, my group and I created a really original narrative for our film trailer, using features of previously done media products, repeating these features, and then making them our own by developing and manipulating aspects. This, as Neal stated, is a very important aspect of each new media product released, ensuring the economy of the genre. If a film was too similar the audience would become un-interested, not investing time in watching the genre, allowing it to "die out".